Gastric cytomegalovirus infection in bone marrow transplant patients: an indication of generalized disease.

Cytomegalovirus infection in immunosuppressed patients is well known. It usually appears as an interstitial pneumonitis that may progress to a disseminated viral infection. The authors report on two patients who, after bone marrow transplantation, had signs and symptoms of gastric ulceration as the initial manifestation of cytomegalovirus infection. Both died with disseminated cytomegalovirus infection. Though gastric presentation is unusual for cytomegalovirus infection, epigastric pain and gastrointestinal hemorrhage in a bone marrow transplant patient may herald a potentially lethal viral infection.